1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the identification of “interesting” compositions that a user may discover while going about their everyday activities; and later providing the identified-compositions (e.g., digital-works) within a customized sequence of compositions or entertainment stream.
2. Description of Related Art
Cell phone song-recognition services that can “name-that-tune” (i.e., identify music that is playing near a user) have recently become available. Typically, a user either activates a program already stored in their cell phone or dials a phone number in-order to activate the song-recognition service. The user then holds the phone up to the music (for about 20 seconds) and then several seconds later the song title and artist appears on the phone's screen. In some cases, the user may receive the song information via a SMS (Short Message Service) text message. Users are typically charged a fee of about $1 for each song that is identified. Typically, the captured sound is forwarded to a remote computer where the sound is analyzed. Typical is the technology of Shazam Entertainment Ltd (London, England) which utilizes a database of digital “fingerprints” for more than 2.2 million songs. The identification accuracy depends on various factors including the background noise level. An identified-song is sometimes referred to as a “tagged” song.
In some cases, a list of the user's previously identified-songs may be viewed on a cell phone or in a web browser. In other cases, the user is presented with a web page where the user may activate links to web pages where the user may a) purchase a compact disk (CD) containing the identified-song or b) purchase and download the identified-song to a user's personal computer (e.g., link to the Apple iTunes store). The numerous inconveniences associated with these approaches are discussed below.
Similarly, while a user is surfing the web or using an interactive device, the user may experience or discover compositions which are of possible continuing interest. For example, the user may experience and become “interested” in a composition after hearing a sample portion of it at a web site or hearing it on an internet radio station. As another example, a user may become “interested” in a song used as part of a multi-media presentation or within a video that is playing on a web browser or on a personal computer. In some cases, the user may be provided a link where the user may get additional information or may purchase the composition. The numerous inconveniences associated with these approaches are discussed below.
Some of the numerous limitations and inconveniences associated with links to web pages to acquire compositions include:                The user is often overwhelmed by the number of possible links available and the maze of links they have activated.        The user must decide to activate a link to the web page offering the CD or a download of the composition.        Even if the user follows the link, they must commit to a purchase in the short time the user is still at the web page.        Even when the user follows the link to the web page, the user may not have enough immediate interest or time to commit to a purchase.        If the user postpones a purchase, it is unlikely the user will be able to find or return to the offering web page later. Typically, once a user has finished with the web page, there is a decreasing likelihood the user will return to it to make a purchase.        
Typically, due to the high cost of a CD ($10-20), the user often wants to more extensively sample much of a CD over a period of time before committing to a purchase. Consequently, links to a web page offering a CD containing an identified-composition will have a very low sales rate. Similarly, for downloaded compositions, many users would prefer to become familiar with a composition over a period of time, before having to commit to a purchase.
To increase the time a user spends at a web page and further interest the user in a purchase, web pages sometimes include a sample portion (e.g., test-sample) of the composition. Typically, a user may initiate the playback of a sample of a composition (e.g., song) by pressing a link on a web page. Often, users will not purchase, unless they were previously familiar with the composition. Users typically listen to the sample to confirm the composition is actually what they were looking for (and not another version or composition with a similar title) before deciding to make their purchase. Many users may not decide to purchase a composition until they have reached a certain familiarity over a period of time.
In addition, both purchased media (e.g., compact disks) and songs downloaded to a personal computer have numerous additional limitations and user inconveniences which typically result in few user purchases. These other limitations and inconveniences will now be discussed.
User inconveniences associated with purchased physical media such as CD's, DAT, tapes, and DVD's include:                The user must expend considerable effort to be able to identify what they want and then to locate the media at a vendor and then purchase it.        In order to purchase a media, the listener must be able to identify the specific album desired by title, artist and/or other information. Sometimes the listener may purchase the wrong item by mistake.        Each purchased media may include many compositions that the user does not want.        Once purchased, the listener must provide physical storage for the media and then later locate and insert the media into a device to playback the compositions. To playback a particular song, the user must remember the particular media (e.g., CD) the song is located on and then be able to find that specific media among perhaps 100's of similar looking media and then locate that song on the CD.        The user must also coordinate and physically transport the media between the user's various locations and user-devices (e.g. home, car, portable player, etc). Often, the desired physical media may not be at the desired user's location.        Media players hold only a limited of number of physical media so the user is limited to a playback stream from a limited number of media at any one time.        For certain locations, such as in an automobile, the locating, handing and inserting the media may be a safety distraction.        The order of playback is limited to the composition order on the media, the random ordering of the media compositions and/or perhaps a playlist the user manually defines.        Physical media (the user's collection) may be lost or damaged from events such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, fire or theft.        The media is subject to scratching or other physical damage which may degrade playback quality over time. The user has to either create backup copies beforehand or purchase replacement copies.        The physical media itself may degrade over time and have a physical lifetime which is much shorter than the users.        In addition, due to the rapid rate of technological change, vendor support for a given media format and their compatible playback devices may be less than the user's lifetime.        
User inconveniences associated with downloaded compositions that are stored locally on the hard disk of a user's personal computer [such as Apple iTunes] include:                With Apple iTunes, a user is only allowed to download the composition once per purchase. A user may lose their purchased usage-rights if this local user-device (typically a personal computer) is lost due to an event such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, fire or theft. If lost, the iTunes songs must be purchased a second time before it can be downloaded again.        To protect their iTunes collection from loss, users are responsible for backing up their collection of compositions by copying them from the personal computer to an external storage device or media. Without a backup copy, any damage or loss of the personal computer's hard disk will result in an unrecoverable loss of the user's collection and the user would be required to repurchase and rebuild their collection again from scratch. Many users do not perform regular backups because of the time and effort involved. Even when backups are done, users often keep their backup copies in close proximity to their computer hard drive, which may not protect against loss or damage from events such as a hurricane, tornado, flood, fire or theft.        With Apple iTunes, a purchased song may be authorized for use on only 5 user-devices (of an authorized type) at a time. The user is required to perform a complicated procedure to transfer a song and obtain authorization to use the song on each new user-device. In order to authorize the use of a song on a new user-device, the user may be required to enter the Apple-ID and password used to purchase the song. When the 5 user-device limit is reached, the user is also required to manually de-authorize a song on one user-device so it can be authorized on another user-device. The user must also remember to de-authorize their computers and user-devices whenever they are sold, given away or are serviced.        Transfers of iTunes usage-rights to other user-devices (such as a portable player) are typically accomplished by a cable or local area wireless connection between the PC and the second device. This typically requires the other user-devices to be brought near the PC or local media server where the user's usage-rights are stored. In addition, the user must plan and coordinate bringing the devices together whenever a transfer of usage-rights is desired. Such transfers are particularly difficult when the user-devices are at different physical locations (such as home, work, automobile, etc.) or are not easily portable.        Overall, an iTunes user must expend significant time and effort to acquire, download, backup, and transfer songs between their user-devices and to authorize/de-authorize their collection of songs at each user-device.        
What is desired is an easy and convenient way to identify and provide unknown but interesting compositions that a user may discover while going about their everyday activities.